Ageless Forever Anti-Aging News Blog

In people with pre-existing cardiovascular disease, it has long been well documented that long-term use of aspirin is an effective anti-platelet treatment that significantly reduces the risk of serious cardiovascular events (such as heart attacks and strokes) by 30% and cardiovascular death by 15%.[1, 2]

This benefit greatly exceeds the potential risk of increased bleeding events, which is a side effect of aspirin.[3] Therefore clinical guidelines recommend that people with cardiovascular disease take low dose aspirin (75 to 162 mg) daily to prevent recurrence of cardiovascular events.[4-6]

More recently, the use of aspirin in healthy people for prevention of cardiovascular disease, as well as cancer, has been getting more and more attention. However, research on prophylactic use of aspirin conflicting and clinical guidelines are contradictory. Here I will shed some light on new research to help you make an informed decision whether aspirin may protect you…

Consumption of red meat has been associated with fat gain (weight gain) because of its high fat and calorie content. Even though the old idea that “a high fat intake causes body fat gain” has been completely debunked in medical research [1-9], red meat still is a food that's on the forbidden or avoid list in most diet plans. And for some reason, women tend to be especially afraid of eating meat…

While there are studies showing an association between meat intake and obesity [10-12], there are also studies not showing this [12-14]. And when digging deeper in the data, many of the studies that did report a significant association with meat intake and fat gain / obesity have several flaws that invalidate their conclusions....

The number one concern among clinicians worldwide and reason for not prescribing testosterone is the fear that it will cause prostate cancer and/or worsen benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH, age-associated prostate gland enlargement that can cause urination difficulty).

This article is a summary of a recent presentation by Dr. Khera at The Annual European Association of Urology (EAU) Congress held in March 2015.

The EAU is Europe’s largest annual event for medical health care professionals, showcasing the latest medical research findings in the andrology and urology fields.

In this presentation, Dr. Khera debunks the popular widespread myth that testosterone supposedly is harmful for the prostate, and presents provocative new testosterone research…

Vitamin D deficiency/insufficiency is associated with increased all-cause mortality [1, 27], and vitamin D supplementation has been shown to decrease mortality [28, 29]. It has been estimated that doubling blood vitamin D levels in the general population (from 21 ng/mL to 44 ng/mL) would reduce vitamin D-related disease mortality rate by 20%, and increase life expectancy with about 2 years [30].

2. Insufficient levels of vitamin D also have direct implications for fitness enthusiasts and athletic performance, due to the importance of vitamin D for muscle function (I will cover this in much more depth in an upcoming article) [31-42].

3. In contrast to most other vitamins, vitamin D deficiency/insufficiency is very common (more on that below).

4. The vitamin D requirement for health promotion and protection against all-cause mortality and muscle dysfunction is much higher than the dietary recommendations (RDA), which only consider for bone related outcomes [4, 43-48].

Having heard about all the vitamin D benefits you might wonder what is the optimal vitamin D blood level? How low is too low? How common is vitamin D deficiency or insufficiency?

Nitric oxide (NO) boosting “pre-workout” supplements based on L-arginine have been – and still are – quite popular among many fitness enthusiasts and athletes. While it’s true that arginine is a nitric oxide (NO) precursor and NO is a potent vasodilator [1, 2], most studies in healthy adults have not unequivocally supported the marketing hype that arginine supplementation increases muscle blood flow and/or performance [3-5]. In my previous article “The Arginine Paradox” I explained why.

In this article I will cover the less well known, albeit highly significant, NO generating process, the nitrate-nitrite-NO pathway. This new NO producing pathway holds a lot of promise and supplements that target it will probably replace the current arginine based NO boosters in the near future[6, 7].

The nitrate-nitrite-NO pathway is especially interesting in that it not only has performance enhancing effects in healthy folks – as well as in people with risk factors – but also offers cardiovascular protection, regardless of baseline health status [7-10].

One of the most controversial and debated issue related to testosterone replacement therapy is its effects on cardiovascular risk and related clinical outcomes.

In this video presentation, Dr. Morgentaler clarifies misperceptions of testosterone replacement therapy and cardiovascular disease risk, which have created unwarranted concerns and distorted public discussion of testosterone replacement therapy as a medical treatment.

One of the most controversial and debated issue related to testosterone replacement therapy is its effects on cardiovascular risk and related clinical outcomes.

In the February 2015 issue of Mayo Clinic Proceedings a comprehensive medical review paper, written by Dr. Abraham Morgentaler and his coauthors of the Androgen Study Group – www.AndrogenStudyGroup.org - was published.[1]

The aim of the review was to analyze all available studies on testosterone replacement therapy and cardiovascular effects, and to clarify the grossly misleading conclusions from two recent studies that caused a tremendous media scare.

In this 8 minute video, Dr. Morgentaler presents the key results from this comprehensive analysis…

Frequent consumption of red meant and processed meats has been shown in population studies to be associated with cardiovascular disease, cancer and type 2 diabetes [1-3]. It has also been suggested that eating meat increases all-cause mortality [4]. Hence, a high meat intake (regardless of its fat quantity and quality) is generally perceived to be unhealthy and something that should be avoided.

However, although there are many studies documenting these associations, results are not always consistent and there are many important methodological issues which weaken the conclusions (more on that in a bit). In the same way as the putative health risks of red meat consumption is investigated, its documented health benefits (which I will cover below) are equally as important and must be given a fair chance in the establishment of dietary recommendations related to red meat consumption.

In this article I will therefore cover both sides of the red meat debate, and after having taken all the available scientific data into consideration, present a more balanced view about the “meat is bad” dogma…

Some of the most popular supplements today are the so called pre-workout nitric oxide (NO) boosters [1, 2]. These contain a panoply of ingredients, but one the main ones is arginine. The rationale goes that L-arginine is a nitric oxide (NO) precursor and NO is a potent vasodilator [3, 4]. Theoretically this would increase blood flow and nutrient/oxygen delivery to exercising muscles and thereby boost performance, as well as recovery.

While it is true that L-arginine supplementation may be beneficial for various clinical populations (see below), studies in healthy adults have not unequivocally supported the marketing hype surrounding arginine supplementation and nitric oxide boosters [1, 5, 6]. Why? Let's take a look under the hood...